Category Archives: Comic Books

Lots of great new additions to our graphic novel collection for the start of the New Year. Here’s what’s new and hot!

Queer cartooning encompasses some of the best and most interesting comics of the last four decades, with creators tackling complex issues of identity and a changing society with intelligence, humor and imagination. This groundbreaking new collection celebrates a vibrant artistic underground by gathering together a collection of excellent stories that can be enjoyed by everyone. Among the stellar list of contributors to No Straight Lines is Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Ralf Koenig, Robert Kirby, Wojnarowicz and Dan Savage.

When confronted with his girlfriend’s request that they have a child together, Samuel fled that relationship. But now, a year later, when he receives a letter from Alice announcing she is expecting a baby, old emotions flare up and he embarks on a long journey to see Alice again – to re-open or perhaps close forever that important chapter of his life. The Crackle of the Frost is what he sees, hears, experiences and learns during that journey.

A richly-illustrated graphic novel adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, told through the eyes of the vampire Claudia, who was just a little girl when she was turned by the vampire Lestat. Though she spends many years of happiness with her two vampire fathers, she gradually grows discontent with their insistence upon treating her like a little girl, even though she has lived as long as any mortal man…and her lust to kill is certainly no less than theirs…

Gary Panter began imagining Dal Tokyo, a future Mars that is terraformed by Texan and Japanese workers, as far back as 1972, appropriating a friend’s idea about cultural and temporal collision (The Dal is short for Dallas).

Wallace Wood applied his preternaturally lush brushwork to over two dozen stories in the thematically overlapping (“dreadful things happen to people, both innocent and guilty”) horror, crime, and suspense genres. Came the Dawn is the subject of one of the two premiere releases in Fantagraphics’ highly-anticipated new EC reprint line.

The Voyeurs is a real-time memoir of a turbulent five years in the life of renowned cartoonist, diarist, and filmmaker Gabrielle Bell. It collects episodes from her award-winning series Lucky, in which she travels to Tokyo, Paris, the South of France, and all over the United States, but remains anchored by her beloved Brooklyn, where sidekick Tony provides ongoing insight, offbeat humor, and enduring friendship.

From the Underground era to THE SIMPSONS comic book to her graphic novel THE BIG SKINNY, Carol Lay has been writing and drawing amazing stories for years. Her Story Minute strip, which gained a devoted following while appearing on Salon.com, is collected here for the first time in Illiterature.

Andy’s life is going nowhere, fast. He left art school with his career all worked out ahead of time, but … to say it didn’t work out is the understatement of the century. Unemployed and living with his overbearing parents, Andy struggles to keep sight of the lofty goals that once drove him. The first volume of a series, Tune is a science fiction comedy, but it’s also a smart and affectionate examination of human nature.

“Ah Pook” was the legendary unpublished collaboration between Burroughs and McNeil that never fully came together. This book, which only contains the art from McNeil, is part of the planned project in a two-book set.

Building Stories imagines the inhabitants of a three-story Chicago apartment building: a 30-something woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple, possibly married, who wonder if they can bear each others company another minute; and the building’s landlady, an elderly woman who has lived alone for decades.

To lure pretty Epily, little chick Abelard sees only one solution: to catch the moon for her. So off he goes to America, the country that invented flying machines. Armed with his banjo and his proverb-sharing hat, he launches out on the country roads, where he meets Gaston, a grumpy bear with whom he shares his plan. As opposed to dreamer Abelard, Gaston has his feet firmly planted on the ground. This humorous comic, where the absurd becomes poetry, explores philosophical ideas through a simple, fanciful story.

It’s all here in the second edition of Faster than a speeding bullet: The rise of the Graphic Novel–the must-reads, the newest, hottest creators, and what to look for in the future of this exciting new medium.

In the early 1960s, minor-player Marvel Comics introduced a host of brightly bedecked and brave but sometimes humanly fallible superheroes like Spiderman; now its the No. 1 comics company in the world. Here is an unauthorized history from former Entertainment Weekly editor Sean Howe.

The debut graphic novel from Noah Van Sciver follows the twenty-something Abraham Lincoln as he loses everything, long before becoming our most beloved president. Lincoln is a rising Whig in the state’s legislature as he arrives in Springfield, IL to practice law. With all of his possessions under his arms in two saddlebags, he is quickly given a place to stay by a womanizing young bachelor who becomes his friend and close confidant. Lincoln builds a life and begins friendships with the town’s top lawyers and politicians. He attends elegant dances and meets an independent-minded young woman from a high-society Kentucky family, and after a brisk courtship, becomes engaged. But, as time passes and uncertainty creeps in, young Lincoln is forced to battle a dark cloud of depression brought on by a chain of defeats and failures culminating into a nervous breakdown that threatens his life and sanity. This cloud of dark depression Lincoln calls “The Hypo.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Nao Brown, who’shafu(half Japanese, half English), is not well. She’s suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and fighting violent urges to harm other people. But that’s not who she really wants to be. Nao has dreams. She wants to quiet her unruly mind; she wants to get her design and illustration career off the ground; and she wants to find love, perfect love. Nao’s life continues to seesaw. Her boyfriend dumps her; a toy deal falls through. But she also meets Gregory, an interesting washing-machine repairman, and Ray, an art teacher at the Buddhist Center. She begins to draw and meditate to ease her mind and open her heart—and in doing so comes to a big realization: Life isn’t black-and-white after all . . . it’s much more like brown.

The Graphic Canon, Volume 2 gives us a visual cornucopia based on the wealth of literature from the 1800s. Several artists—including Maxon Crumb and Gris Grimly—present their versions of Edgar Allan Poe’s visions. The great American novel Huckleberry Finn is adapted uncensored for the first time, as Twain wrote it. The bad boys of Romanticism—Shelley, Keats, and Byron—are visualized here, and so are the Brontë sisters. We see both of Coleridge’s most famous poems: “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (the latter by British comics legend Hunt Emerson). Philosophy and science are ably represented by ink versions of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Confessing his past to an unidentified woman, Doug struggles to recall the mysterious incident that left his life shattered, an incident that may have involved his disturbed and now-absent girlfriend, Sarah, and her menacing ex-boyfriend.

From his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962, to his appearance in numerous blockbuster films, Spider-Man has captivated legions of fans, young and old alike. With DK’s fascinating chronicle format, this guide traces the development of your friendly neighborhood web-slinger by decade, looking at comics, storylines, and character — year by year, month by month. Readers will get to take a closer look at the writers and artists who created the hero, the development of his iconic costume, and the key story arcs, allies, and foes that make up Spidey’s world.

Comic books are big business and they are getting even bigger with the digital distribution of E-comics through mobile device apps such as Comixology, iVerse and Panelfly. As recently reported in the September 24, 2012 issue of Publishers Weekly, ” Comixology expects to surpass 100 million (downloads) by the end of September.” You would think publishers and retailers in the comic book business would be nervous that this would be the end of print comics. On the contrary, PW says, “…digital comic sales and digital sampling appear to be driving growth in print sales in what’s turned out to be a boom year for periodical and book-format comics”

The Comixology app is popular among iPad users. Comixology is also in the process of developing Guided View, a tool for creating and self-publishing.

DC Comics paved the way for the comic’s digital age back in August of 2011 with the relaunch of New 52, a simultaneous print and digital release of its superhero line.

In Fever Moon,we meet the most ancient and deadly Unseelie ever created, the Fear Dorcha. For eons, he’s traveled worlds with the Unseelie king, leaving behind him a path of mutilation and destruction. Now he’s hunting Dublin, and no one Mac loves is safe. Dublin is a war zone. The walls between humans and Fae are down. A third of the world’s population is dead and chaos reigns. Imprisoned over half a million years ago, the Unseelie are free and each one Mac meets is worse than the last. Human weapons don’t stand a chance against them.

Detective John Blacksad returns, with a new case that takes him to a 1950s New Orleans filled with hot jazz and cold-blooded murder! Hired to discover the fate of a celebrated pianist, Blacksad finds his most dangerous mystery yet in the midst of drugs, voodoo, the rollicking atmosphere of Mardi Gras, and the dark underbelly that it hides!

Originally serialized in Love and Rockets New Stories, “Ti-Girls Adventures” managed to be both a rollickingly creative super-hero joyride (featuring three separate super-teams and over two dozen characters) that ranged from the other side of the universe to Maggie’s shabby apartment, and a genuinely dramatic fable about madness, grief, and motherhood as Penny Century’s decades-long quest to become a genuine super-heroine are finally, and tragically, fulfilled.

Siegfried, Volume 1 by Alex Alice is the first of a three-part story inspired by Wagner’s classic opera The Ring of the Nibelung. Siegfried, half-god and half-mortal, is a young boy being raised by Mime, one of the last of the dwarf-goblin Nibelungs, in a dark forest with only wolves for friends and family. While his foster parent only wants to live in peace and solitude, Siegfried yearns to discover who his real parents are and live amongst his own kind, not knowing that Odin, father of the Norse gods, has a destiny planned for him: to fight the dragon Fafnir, guardian of the Rheingold.

Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of Her Father”s Eyes contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S. Atherton. Social expectations and gender politics, thwarted ambitions and personal tragedy are played out against two contrasting historical backgrounds, poignantly evoked by the atmospheric visual storytelling of award-winning graphic-novel pioneer Bryan Talbot. Produced through an intense collaboration seldom seen between writers and artists, Dotter of Her Father”s Eyes is smart, funny, and sad – an essential addition to the evolving genre of graphic memoir.

This graphic novel showcases Lovecraft’s talent for the macabre. From the insidious mutations of ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ to the mind-bending threat of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, this collection explores themes of insanity, inherited guilt and arcane ritual to startling effect.

Out of the Shadows collects the best of Golden Age comics artist Mort Meskin’s comic book stories from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. Edited by Meskin biographer Steven Brower, Out of the Shadows continues Fantagraphics’ mission to publish the greatest work by Golden Age comic book artists. For decades Meskin’s comics were relegated to the yellowing newsprint pages of collectors. Now finally Mort Meskin steps “out of the shadows” in the first book dedicated solely to reprinting his best comics stories.

In this new original graphic novel, Batman: Death by Design, from superstar writer/designer Chip Kidd and artist Dave Taylor, Gotham City is undergoing one of the most expansive construction booms in its history. The most prestigious architects from across the globe have buildings in various phases of completion all over town. As chairman of the Gotham Landmarks Commission, Bruce Wayne has been a key part of this boom, which signals a golden age of architectural ingenuity for the city. And then, the explosions begin. All manner of design-related malfunctions–faulty crane calculations, sturdy materials suddenly collapsing, software glitches, walkways giving way and much more–cause casualties across the city. This bizarre string of seemingly random, unconnected catastrophes threaten to bring the whole construction industry down. Fingers are pointed as Batman must somehow solve the problem and find whoever is behind it all. -Amazon

Millions know and love the legends of Jesse James, Annie Oakley, Davy Crockett and others who settled in the Wild West. The stories of frontiersmen, outlaws, cowboys and Indians are indelibly linked to the spirit of America. Golden Age Western Comics presents a collection of these uniquely American stories as told through a uniquely American medium…the comic book! A loving reproduction of full colour, restored, complete scans of over 40 of the best Western stories created between 1948-1956. A collection that is sure to delight fans of all ages.

If you’re visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker’s Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets—including many that the over controlling government doesn’t want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city’s powerful leaders.

Guy Delisle expertly lays the groundwork for a cultural road map of contemporary Jerusalem, utilizing the classic stranger in a strange land point of view that made his other books,Pyongyang, Shenzhen,and Burma Chronicles required reading for understanding what daily life is like in cities few are able to travel to. In Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Delisle explores the complexities of a city that represents so much to so many. He eloquently examines the impact of the conflict on the lives of people on both sides of the wall while drolly recounting the quotidian: checkpoints, traffic jams, and holidays.

Comic Books and American Cultural History is an anthology that examines the ways in which comic books can be used to understand the history of the United States. Over the last twenty years, there has been a proliferation of book-length works focusing on the history of comic books, but few of those books have emphasized their connection to American cultural history. These original essays demonstrate the different ways in which comic books can be used as resources. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 examines comics and graphic novels that demonstrate the techniques of cultural history; the essays in Part 2 use comics and graphic novels as cultural artifacts; the third part of the book studies the concept of historical identity through the 20th century; and the final section focuses on different treatments of contemporary American history. Discussing works that range from Wonder Woman and Superman to American Flagg! and Ex Machina, this is a vivid collection that will be useful to anyone teaching or studying comic books in the classroom.